33 Fun Halloween Team Building Activities for Work

You found our list of the best Halloween team building activities for work.

Halloween team building activities are festive games and activities to enjoy with groups during the spooky season. Examples include Trivia, Pumpkin Decorating, and Haunted Houses.The purpose of these activities is to bring groups closer in the month of October and spread the Halloween spirit.

These experiences are examples of team celebrations and team building events. The ideas are similar to virtual Halloween party ideas, Halloween games, and hybrid Halloween activities.

This article includes:

• Halloween team building games
• Halloween team building ideas
• Halloween activities for employees
• Halloween-themed team building activities
• Halloween team outing ideas
• Halloween office games
• Halloween group games

Here we go!

List of Halloween team building activities

From pumpkin decorating to group costumes to Halloween candy brackets, here are the best activities to do with teams at Halloween.

1. Ghost Hunt in the Haunted Mansion (Top Choice)

Teams can go on a spine-chilling virtual tour of Winchester Mansion with Ghost Hunt in the Haunted Mansion! During this immersive experience, players will uncover a mystery filled with dark secrets and escape the building.

Key features of Ghost Hunt in the Haunted Mansion include:

• 90 minutes with a highly talented host
• eerie jump scares and spine-tingling encounters with Ouija boards
• mysteries and evil forces that lurk within the mansion
• captivating puzzles, clues, and stories to help unravel the haunted tale

To find the escape, your team’s wits and quick thinking will be put to the ultimate test. Be sure to check out Ghost Hunt in the Haunted Mansion to experience an adrenaline-pumping adventure!

Learn more about Ghost Hunt in the Haunted Mansion.

2. Escape Dracula’s Castle

Escape Dracula’s Castle is a virtual-escape-room-style game. Beyond solving timed, tricky puzzles, players must also use social deduction to determine which of their coworkers are secretly vampire saboteurs.

Highlights of this experience:

• 90 minutes
• Reshuffling of teams between games
• Challenging collaborative riddles and puzzles
• Real history and stories about key figures and locations

This activity is ideal for groups who think quick on their feet and thrive under pressure.

Learn more about Escape Dracula’s Castle.

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3. Haunted Houses

Haunted houses are one of the most popular Halloween team outing ideas. These thrilling attractions aim to scare groups and make folks scream. Getting spooked and being vulnerable can bring teams closer together. Plus, it is fun to see which team members shriek like banshees and which coworkers do not bat an eye at jump scares!

The scare factor in haunted houses can range from bone-chilling and hair-raising to merely slightly scary. These events are meant to be more fun than scary, so it is a good idea to check your team’s comfort levels and make the activity optional if you choose a truly frightening option. Also, it is wise to warn employees with anxiety or heart conditions to sit this activity out.

Pro tip: If you do a haunted house that offers a photo option, buy the picture to keep as a memento!

4. Hayrides

Hayrides are a tamer alternative to haunted houses. Some venues offer haunted hayrides, however, these options still tend to be less terrifying than haunted houses. Teams can bundle up, sip warm cider, and enjoy a rustic ride on a tractor piled with hay bales. This activity can be a great end to a day at the pumpkin patch or a relaxing standalone event.

5. Pumpkin Decorating

Pumpkin decorating is one of the best Halloween-themed team building activities. Employees carve, paint, or craft a perfect pumpkin. This activity can be individual or team-based, competitive, or just for fun. You can assign a theme to the activity, for example, “all-time-best villains” or “aliens,” or let participants use their imaginations.

To set up this activity, secure a space with tables and chairs and plenty of room to be creative. For easy clean-up, set out tablecloths or newspapers. Then, provide pumpkins, carving tools, paint, and craft supplies like fake gems, feathers, and googly eyes. If you are on a tight budget, then consider mini-pumpkins. Also, if you would rather not risk rotting pumpkins, then buy fake craft pumpkins.

Be sure to display the jack-o-lanterns so the team can appreciate their coworkers’ masterpieces!

6. Halloween Team Bingo

Halloween Team Bingo is a social game that gets folks mingling and sharing the Halloween spirit! To play, give employees a randomized card with Halloween-themed prompts.

Here is a template you can use:

Players talk to peers and mark boxes with the names of coworkers who fit the description. For maximum interaction, specify that players cannot reuse the name of the same coworker in one line. The first player to mark five consecutive boxes wins the game.

You can play this activity during a Halloween party or stretch it out throughout the day.

7. Scary Taste Test

A scary taste test is a Fear Factor-inspired activity that tests which teammate is the bravest eater. To prepare for the activity, gather various bizarre foods. These snacks should be strange yet not disgusting or terrifying. Good examples include weird pumpkin- spice-flavored products, cricket lollipops, super hot sauce, and bacon & butterfingers. Examples to avoid include live insects, unsavory animal organs, expired food, and combinations that might make folks queasy.

You can play put the food options on a roulette wheel and make players spin, blindfold tasters and make them guess the dish, or play tournament-style and keep eating until only one player remains or all the foods have been tried.

8. Greatest Fears

Greatest fears is a get-to-know-you activity that uses the power of vulnerability to bond teams. The exercise is simple.

Here are the steps:

1. Gather the group
2. Hand out slips of paper
3. Instruct participants to write something they are scared of on the paper
4. Collect all slips in a bowl or bag
5. Shuffle the papers
6. Have players pick a new slip from the pile and read it aloud
7. Challenge team members to guess which team member wrote the fear

To make the game more interesting, you could also prompt certain players to lie and invent ridiculous fears that players must identify.

9. Potion-Making Class

Potion-making classes elevate mixology lessons to magical proportions. These fun experiences have participants mixing drinks in cauldrons or with spooky fog. You can find themed bars and pop-ups that host these events. Or, you can DIY a potions class by getting cauldron-shaped pots, printing special recipes, and having dry-ice on hand. For the less adventurous, you can make any Halloween-themed cocktail or sample pumpkin-flavored beers.

10. Pumpkin Picking

Pumpkin picking is one of the best outdoor Halloween activities for employees. Simply head to a local farm and let each employee pick a pumpkin. Upon returning to the office, you can decorate the gourds, have a fall-themed cooking class, or simply let team members take their pumpkins home or use them to decorate their desks. If you are far from a farm, then you can create a DIY pumpkin patch by placing pumpkins in a grassy area of your campus.

Pro tip: Be sure to snap a picture of your staff with their fall hauls!

11. Group Costumes

Group costumes are one of the most obvious Halloween team building ideas. You can challenge departments or teams to coordinate a group costume. Examples might include a block of Tetris pieces, a superhero squad, or the different movie roles of a particular actor. The more creative and original these costumes are, the more entertaining the activity will be. You can assign a theme for the contest or let teams choose their own ideas.

12. Impromptu Costume Challenge

The impromptu costume challenge makes one of the most fun Halloween party games for work. First, gather an assortment of random objects and accessories. Next, split the groups into teams. When the leader blows a whistle, players have up to thirty seconds to grab a random item from the collection. Then, teams reconvene and must create one cohesive costume that incorporates each object. Teams must present and explain their creation to the other groups, and a judge determines the most creative and persuasive interpretation.

13. Costume Contest

Costume contests are one of the most common Halloween activities for employees. In these competitions, employees dress up in their most impressive Halloween outfits and face off to take home the best-dressed title. You can create categories like best group, best pair, scariest, funniest, and most creative. You could also give the contest an overall theme. For example, our sister brand, Museum Hack, runs a yearly costume contest that challenges employees to dress up like and pose with famous works of art.

You can ask employees and clients to vote on their favorite outfits, and announce a winner at the end of your event.

Pro tip: You can use the fun photos to gain some love for your brand on social media.

Here is a list of virtual costume contest ideas.

14. Kid or Pet Costume Contest

Kid or pet costume contests get teams competing to have the best-dressed Halloween child or cuddly companion. These activities allow staff to share photos of their beloved family members and help coworkers learn more about each others’ outside-of-work lives. You can dedicate a Slack channel or bulletin board for the activity. If you have a bigger group, then you may want to separate entries by age range for children and species for pets. Bonus points if the employee hand-made the costume!

15. Guess the Ghoul

Guess the Ghoul is one of the most fun Halloween team building games, and involves guessing the childhood costumes of your colleagues.

To play:

1. Have employees submit photos of past Halloween costumes, for example from childhood or teenage years.
2. Assign each photo a number.
3. Post the photos on a bulletin board, at various locations around a party venue or in a slideshow presentation.
4. Give participants a game card to “guess the ghoul” in each photo, by writing down the name.
5. Award prizes for the most correct guesses, and the “Sneakiest Ghoul” that avoided the most correct guesses.

Childhood costumes and full-body costumes tend to work best for this activity, as these disguises make it harder to guess. This game helps coworkers get nostalgic and learn more about each other’s personalities while reliving memories of Halloween past.

16. Trick or Treating

Most folks love candy, which makes office trick or treating one of the best Halloween team building ideas. There are a variety of ways you can do this activity. For example, you can set up different types of candy in different departments and areas of the office and encourage employees to visit each other throughout the day. You could also invite employees’ children to come to the office and trick or treat between departments.

For a more grown-up spin on this tradition, you can arrange a food tour or a bar crawl and lead teams to different locations in town to try a different Halloween-themed treat at each destination.

17. Spooky Scavenger Hunt

Spooky scavenger hunts make some of the best Halloween team building activities. To prepare for this game, come up with a list of Halloween-themed objects to retrieve and challenges to complete. Then, split the group into teams, hand each team a task list, and set a time limit to complete as many checkmarks as possible. When time is up, reconvene, share your findings, and award the group who accomplished the most tasks or produced the funniest finds.

Here are some suggestions for prompts:

• A black cat owner
• Something pumpkin-flavored
• A bone
• Receipt for Halloween candy
• Picture of a team member in an impressive Halloween costume
• A sheet to use for a ghost costume
• Create a one-sentence scary story
• Snap a picture of your best zombie pose
• Capture video of you doing the “Thriller” dance

Here are more scavenger hunt ideas for adults.

18. Scary Movie Marathon

A scary movie marathon makes great office entertainment for Halloween. First, decide on a selection of spooky films. If your employees have a high tolerance for fights, then you can watch horror movies. If your group is more squeamish, then go for lighter Halloween movies. Then, get a screen and projector, arrange comfy seats, get snacks like popcorn and candy, and invite coworkers to relax and watch creepy flicks together. This activity is a great way to find out which teammates are scream queens and which are not afraid of no ghosts!

19. Cider Tasting

Cider Tasting is one of the classiest Halloween team building ideas. You and your group can either head to a local cidery that offers flights or DIY a tasting. Simply gather your ciders, sip, and share your impressions. The ciders can be alcoholic or non-alcoholic, and you can pair the drinks with other fall treats like apple donuts and pumpkin pie!

20. Candy-Making Class

Candy is a must at Halloween. Candy-making classes make the act of enjoying sugary treats even sweeter. You can take the group to a local confectionary to learn how to make treats like truffles, chocolate bars, and gummies. Or, order DIY candy kits, set up a space in the office to make the treats, and follow the instructions. Another fun option is to do a cooking class with a theme of desserts using leftover Halloween candy. Whatever method you choose, this activity will delight the learners and the sweet-tooth-havers on your team.

21. Halloween Candy Bracket

A Halloween Candy Bracket is a fun, fantasy-sports-like game you can play in the office. First, create a list of common trick-or-treat candies. Next, pose a series of polls that asks teammates to choose between two candies “This or That” style. The candy that gets the most popular votes moves on to the next round. You will repeat the process until one treat reigns supreme. To make the activity more interesting, when you near the final rounds, allow employees to make impassioned pleas and debate why their choice should win. Then, treat the office to the winning candy!

22. Halloween Party

Halloween parties are one of the most popular choices for Halloween team building ideas. These gatherings bring the office together for food, games, and social time. Parties typically include a range of activities and elements, meaning there will something for every employee to enjoy. We recommend decorating together as a group, dressing in costumes, and doing activities like murder mysteries and pumpkin carving. You can create a fun playlist with songs like “Monster Mash” and “Thriller.”

23. Escape Rooms

Escape rooms simulate danger and often have horror themes, and thus are great team activities for Halloween. You can take your group to a local escape room and challenge the team to work together to thwart villains and survive danger. The group may get a scare and will benefit from an exercise in teamwork. Or, if you have the time and motivation, then you could build your own escape room in the office.

Check out this guide to DIY escape room ideas.

24. Murder Mystery Party

Murder mystery parties make perfect team events for Halloween. Team members can dress up in costumes, play a part, and work together or against each other to identify a criminal. You can download a free script and clues online or buy a board game. For a more monumental experience, you and the group can visit a murder mystery dinner theatre as an outing or book a facilitator to transform your space into a pretend crime scene.

Here is a list of virtual murder mystery games.

25. Ghost Walk

Ghost walks are one of the best team tour ideas for Halloween. These spooky experiences lead teams through supposedly haunted spots. The tours typically happen at night, and a guide tells anecdotes about the locations’ history and reported paranormal activity. These tours excel at giving a sense of a place and allowing coworkers a chance to chat and an exciting talking topic. History buffs love these experiences, as do team members who prefer real-life frights over make-believe.

26. Werewolf

Werewolf makes one of the best Halloween team building games since werewolves are already popular holiday characters. This activity has participants roleplaying as monsters or villagers and trying to last until the end of the game.

Here are the roles:

• Moderator- Knows the identities of all roles, calls out night or morning, and makes the game run smoothly
• Werewolf- Picks a villager to attack each night
• Seer- Hunts the werewolf and can ask the moderator about the werewolf’s identity. Tries to persuade the villagers without revealing themselves to the werewolf.
• Medic- Can save villagers by telling the moderator one person to spare each night.
• Villagers- All the other players. Discuss theories on who the werewolf is, and vote each evening to eliminate one player.

The moderator tells players when it is night or day. Each night, the werewolf picks a villager to attack, the seer makes an accusation, and the medic chooses someone to save. When day comes, the moderator reveals the result, and the villagers discuss and debate the werewolf’s possible identity. The game continues until the werewolf is out or eliminates all villages.

Check out this guide on how to play Werewolf.

27. Halloween Office Decorating Contest

A Halloween office decorating contest turns your office into a haunted house. For maximum team bonding, have entrants decorate together and compete in teams. You can assign a theme for the contest. For example:

• Zombie apocalypse
• Creepy history
• Alien invasion
• Double double toil and trouble
• Scary movies
• Office nightmares

Give groups time to put up their creations. Then, walk around to take a tour of the monsterish masterpieces. At the end of the event or the day, judges should announce a winner.

28. Pumpkin’ Chuckin

Pumpkin’ chuckin is a physical activity that helps employees blow off steam during Halloween. In this event, employees hurl pumpkins as far as possible. Players can throw the gourds by hand, or you can rig up a slingshot. For extra fun, you could even have teams collaborate or compete to build pumpkin-tossing devices. Since this activity is messy, ensure you do it in an open space far from breakable objects like cars or windows. Also, be sure that you clean up your pumpkin guts!

29. Never Have I Ever

Never Have I Ever is a popular icebreaker game and an easy activity to adapt for Halloween. To do the game, players take turns announcing Halloween-themed Never Have I Ever statements, and any players guilty of the action must lower a finger or take a drink.

Here are some Halloween Never Have I Ever prompts:

• Raided my child’s Halloween candy
• Dressed up as a bad pun
• Screamed inside a haunted house
• Gone ghost-hunting
• Participated in mischief night
• Given out dental floss to trick or treaters
• Hit 4+ Halloween parties in one night
• Wore the same Halloween costume 2+ years in a row

Check out more Never Have I Ever questions for work.

30. Truth or Dare

Halloween Truth or Dare is one of the easiest and most fun Halloween group games for the office. This activity can unveil surprising information about coworkers. You can create a list of Halloween-themed Truth or Dare questions to hand out to players, then allow participants to pick prompts from the list or come up with new questions to ask teammates.

For example:

• What is the worst Halloween costume you have ever worn?
• What is the stupidest thing that scares you?
• Which horror movie villain do you sympathize with the most?
• What is the best trick you pulled on someone on Halloween?
• I dare you to let out your most bone-curdling scream.
• I dare you to call someone and sing the Ghostbusters theme song.
• I dare you to watch a video of spiders swarming.
• I dare you to do an impression of [a celebrity] as a vampire.

Here is a truth or dare generator for work.

31. Halloween Most Likely To

Halloween Most Likely To is an amusing game that asks team members to answer questions based on what they know about coworkers. The game leader reads out a list of prompts, and teammates answer with the name of the coworker they think fits the description.

Here are some examples:

• Most likely to spend $300+ on a Halloween costume
• Most likely to hide a zombie bite during an outbreak
• Most likely to prank their kids by lying about finishing their Halloween candy
• Most likely to be the final survivor in a slasher flick
• Most likely to save the best candy for themselves and give the less tasty stuff to trick or treaters

Check out more work-friendly Most Likely To questions.

32. Halloween Crafts

Halloween crafts are a big hit with art lovers and team members who cannot stomach scary stuff. You and your group can create holiday projects together. Good examples include ghost yarn garland, custom trick-or-treat tote bags, pumpkin lanterns, and Day of the Dead masks. To prepare the activity, set up supplies on tables in a communal space and recruit an instructor to demonstrate the project step-by-step. To round out the activity, you can provide drinks and snacks and regularly ask icebreaker questions. This team building exercise is excellent for cultivating the holiday spirit and unleashing creativity.

Pro tip: Encourage employees to display their creepy creations in their workspaces.

33. Halloween Trivia

Halloween Trivia is one of the easiest Halloween games for teams. This pub-quiz-style competition pits groups against each other in a battle of spooky holiday knowledge. You can find pre-made Halloween trivia questions online and use an app like Kahoot! to facilitate gameplay. Choosing fun on-theme team names is a must. For an elevated experience, you can incorporate audio and video clips, such as screams or scenes from horror movies. You can also book a facilitator to run the competition gameshow-style.

Learn more about virtual trivia and trivia games for adults.

Conclusion

Halloween is a time of excitement in most offices. Many folks love spooky season and delight in getting to dress up and share the Halloween spirit with coworkers. The love of the holiday can bring groups together and provide opportunities to have fun, be silly, let guards down, and let loose. By planning fun team activities and games, you can make the most of the occasion and give your group a chance to connect.

Next, check out online pumpkin carving ideas and virtual fall activities for teams.